Tales from the driving seat

A lot of the guys in the charter car business ABSOLUTELY HATE Uber. They think the company is the devil incarnate and that the drivers are the spawn of Satan. I don’t feel that strongly about them, but I do think there’s a hell of a lot broken with this company and they’ve a long way to go to rebuild public trust.

I’m a lucky guy, in general. My job involves me spending my days behind the wheel of a fantastic piece of automotive engineering, talking to interesting people and going to beautiful places.

I’ve met politicians, movie stars, even royalty, a couple of times. Some of them were nice, some of them were just ok, some of them were complete a$$hats. But that’s fine, you take the good with the bad, and you just move on.

But while I thank God every day for the blessings my life has brought me, I never lose sight of the fact that my job is, potentially, a dangerous one too.

Sure, there are plenty of jobs worse than being a traffic cop. It probably wouldn’t even make most people’s top 10 list of crappy occupations. Maybe not even their top 20. But there’s no job I hate more than that.

I guess I’m biased. Over the years, I’ve had plenty of run-ins with traffic cops. I’ve gotten my share of tickets, some deserved, some not. And most of the cops who’ve pulled me over, or who I’ve had to speak to in the course of my daily business, have been totally fine: calm, professional, polite.

The trouble is, I’ve met my share of a$$hats too. You know the kind: twitchy trigger finger, deliberately baiting you, just waiting for you to step an inch out of line. Luckily, I don’t have the kind of racial profile that means I’m going to end up getting shot, but even I feel nervous when I look in the door mirror and see a cop in shades sidling up to my window.

The image of limousine services is that they’re big gas-guzzlers. While they might be all comfort and frills on the inside, from the outside they’re huge, imposing monsters designed to throw off an aura of disdain for those unfortunate enough to be on the sidewalk as they motor past.

Of course, that’s a vastly unfair picture to paint. Most charter car services are very mindful of the impact they have on the cities in which they operate. Not just in terms of the road space they occupy, but the air pollution that their huge gas engines put out as well.

It’s no surprise that cities where limo services are the most popular also tend to be places where there’s the worst gridlock. I’m not suggesting a cause and effect here; it’s just a fact of life that where limos are popular, there’s likely to be a lot of traffic. And a lot of frustration for owners, drivers and clients.